Post navigation

GoPro Hero Session Stops Recording – Easy Solutions

Extreme and Ultra cards. Apparently you just have to pay attention to the gold color!

As mentioned in a previous post, I have a GoPro Hero Session (or Hero 4 Session, as it was originally called) that I absolutely love. Well, absolutely might be an exaggeration, since until recently it would stop recording after a few minutes. As it turns out, the problem that caused my Hero Session to stop, it seems, was that I was using a micro SD card that wasn’t good enough.

It turns out that the card I initially had, a 64 Gb Sandisk “Ultra” card (which I won’t link to avoid confusion), doesn’t transfer data as fast as my new 32 Gb Sandisk “Extreme” card (Amazon). Thus it would stop recording at some point, I assume because it could not longer buffer enough data to make up for the disk’s “pokiness.” Those cards are also available at up to 128 Gb, so you can get even more “extreme” if you like.

It’s like asking whether a “Venti” is bigger than a “Grande” at Starbucks. Just order in ounces and let the cashier, or “barista” figure it out. In this case, how about listing SD cards primarily by data transfer rate, not by some arbitrary X Games-style word that a marketing executive thought up. On the other hand, I just bought an extra card, so perhaps it’s an ingenious marketing strategy.

If you’re in a pinch, or just find it to be acceptable, you can also try turning the recording resolution down. I don’t remember having this problem with my Hero3, but at the same time, I usually kept it recording at 720. When this really bit my with the Hero Session, I noticed that the resolution was set to 1080. Not an ideal solution, but keeping the data rate lower seems to help.

I’ve also noticed that my Canon DSLR camera sometimes stops recording at times. I may try a similar fix with that, though I can’t say whether that will help or not.